The Prime Minister warned today that the country will not get out of the “rame-rame” if it does not move forward now with changes to labor legislation, taking advantage of the “good condition” it is experiencing.
“We have to take advantage now that we are in a good condition. It is not when we are in a crisis situation that we are going to change the structures of our economy and then make it more productive and profitable”, said Luís Montenegro, considering that Portugal has before it “a set of significant opportunities”.
The prime minister was speaking to an audience of businesspeople, at the opening of Millennium Portugal Exportador, which is taking place at Europarque, in Santa Maria da Feira, in the district of Aveiro.
Montenegro said that the Government is acting in a “triangle of intervention”, which brings together taxation, the fight against bureaucracy and the flexibility of labor legislation, which should produce “an even more virtuous effect on the economy, on the life of companies, on the life of the financial system”.
“If we don’t do this, we won’t get out of the rame-rame. And we don’t want a Portugal of the rame-rame. We want a thriving Portugal. We want a Portugal with a cycle that is of economic strength, that is of lasting strength, that is in fact a cycle that retains people and that makes companies competitive so that they can gain and maintain loyalty in their markets”, he concluded.
The Prime Minister also said that he wants “less taxes, more simplification, less complexity” and more flexible labor legislation to “maximize the company’s capacity”, arguing that a contribution is needed from workers so that their more flexible relationship with the employer is a stimulus so that “productive capacity and profitability capacity are also greater, and salaries can grow”.
“We don’t want projects blocked from growth, we don’t want low wages, we don’t want everyone to be on the threshold of the minimum wage. On the contrary, we want people to be able to aspire to earn more, to be able to grow, and for that we have to have an economy that doubles what is growing at the moment, that goes from 2% to 3% and then from 3% to 3.5% and from 3.5% to 4%”, he stated.